The Sorcerer’s Apprentice

For some terrible reason, I was forced to wait a full two days after The Sorcerer’s Apprentice came out before I was actually able to go and see it. I got back from the theater about two hours ago, and I still feel good. The kind of feeling you get when you’re like ‘Holy shit! I’m totally going to blog about this movie later’.

This film was just a marriage of so many things that make me happy. Not only Jay Baruchel, my ultimate favorite, but also magic and fantasy. I love when epic things can draw you in and then drop some humor without taking you away from the action… It legitimately had me on the edge of my seat a couple times and it’s pretty full of action, with the exception of the awesomely awkward courtship scenes that were very humorous.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice was sort of a modern day tale of sorcery and um… apprenticeship. Jay Baruchel plays Dave Stutler, who learns how to control and use his newly discovered powers along side Nicholas Cage, (who plays Balthazar) to destroy a series of gradually-more-powerful evil sorcerers to save the world from becoming overtaken by what would soon become an army of the living dead. Before I go any further, yes, it was all a little cheesy– very Harry Potter-esque, very uncomplicated good vs evil stuff, but entertaining all the same.

It might have been a little too ‘Van Helsing’ if it wasn’t for the fact that the whole thing is repeatedly brought back down with college/nerd humor. Oh, and a minor tertiary love story, but whatever.

Perhaps the best parts of the movie were those which tipped a hat to some of the classics. The famous “These are not the droids you’re looking for” line is repeated verbatim at one point. Not to mention the scene with the dancing mops from Disney’s Fantasia. (Actually, the movie is supposed to be a loose version of that particular segment in Fantasia…) Also, hopefully if you saw the movie you noticed the “Misfits” sticker on Dave’s dresser. Classy.

One note-able high five should be given out for the Magic: The Gathering reference in the form of a cheesy promotional poster for Drake Stone, an illusionist in the film. Wizards of the Coast was so psyched about it that they made a promo card for the movie.

His scenes are some of the funniest, in my opinion. Anyway, back to my point, the movie is seriously full of hilarious one liners and Dave’s transformation into a confident man is a really good message.

All right, admittedly, the worst part about this movie (besides the terrible font for the title) was the soundtrack. Opening up with Jimmy Eat World? Come on… Also, I know a lot of you reading this probably have some hangups about Nicholas Cage’s hair… but I promise, he plays this part well. A few melodramatic scenes, but that’s forgivable I think– after all this is a Disney movie, aimed at a younger audience (read: family).